Three years after its much-anticipated opening, the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute has churned out its first clinical study - and there are many more to come, researchers say.

The new report shows that few prostate cancer patients had severe side effects within one year of treatment with the university's Jacksonville-based proton beam. Of 212 patients, there were two instances in which the side effects required surgery to fix; another 56 cases needed medicines to be corrected.

The results are all the more impressive because the study involved higher doses of radiation than have been used in similar research, said Nancy Mendenhall, one of the study's authors and the institute's medical director. She presented the findings earlier this month at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's annual meeting in Chicago.

"This is our very first report," Mendenhall said Friday in an interview, noting that most clinical trials take years to yield results.

In this case, the results are only preliminary. Some patients may not experience side effects until three years or more after their treatments, so Mendenhall and other researchers will continue to follow the group for years to come.

Proton versus conventional

Supporters say the key difference between proton therapy and conventional radiation, which uses X-rays, is the amount of healthy tissue it preserves around its target. Protons destroy tissue only at the tumor site, whereas traditional radiation destroys everything in its path and beyond, they say.

Amid the center's busy workload, which reached a record 122 patients in one day recently, researchers have been toiling quietly on 25 clinical studies. A common theme of UF's work is trying to determine whether proton therapy's theoretical advantages are a reality.

Their subjects include the beam's effect on nasal cavity and sinus cancers, a certain kind of skin cancer that appears on the head and neck, cancer at the base of the skull and pancreatic cancer.

Notably, the institute announced this month a partnership with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., in which the hospital will refer brain cancer patients younger than 3 years old to the institute. In return, UF researchers will study the treatment's side effects and how well the cancer responds.

Price tag a factor

Gauging the treatment's effectiveness is important because, at present, proton therapy is considerably more expensive than comparable interventions. And it has plenty of critics to win over.

"Proton beam is phenomenally expensive," Anthony Zietman of Massachusetts General Hospital told a medical news Web site recently. His hospital is one of six nationwide that has a proton beam accelerator. "It's hard to justify because we are not seeing clinical superiority. But that may change."

Walt Justice, for one, is a believer. The Fort Myers health-care consultant traveled to Jacksonville for eight weeks of therapy on his early-stage but aggressive prostate cancer. He initially planned to go to Mayo Clinic's Jacksonville campus, but a Google search for "best cancer docs in Jacksonville" diverted him to UF's center.

"In the worst-case scenario, if it didn't work, I could go back to the other," said Justice, who found he didn't need to go anywhere else. His cancer went away and stayed away, with no side effects. "I was convinced this was the right place then, and I'm convinced I was in the right place today."

My step mother was treated at this facility for a brain tumor that was inoperable. She is alive and doing well with no signs of the tumor. I have nothing but praise for the staff and support in the Proton Therapy project!

I've totally given up on local TV news for being so lazy that only canned, out-of-area news (using the term loosely) is shown, especially when it comes to science and medical reporting. I just hope to see more local T-U coverage of medical news and other research being done right here in northeast Florida. We have so many great research institutions here on our own doorstep, but I still rarely see much of it in the news. There are hundreds of stories waiting to be told from Mayo, Shands, St. Luke's, UNF, JU and FSC. Sure, the daily shootings in north and west Jacksonville need their due coverage, but let's see more local science and medical news. Too many people have no idea this stuff is happening here.